Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

arsebiscuits1

shootermacg wrote: »

Well to be fair, your posts put everyone to sleep, so not surprising that you sleep well.

Ok mate.

If you want to just be nasty to people we can leave it at that.

Have a good weekend. You clearly could do with one

Interested Observer

awec wrote: »

We have one, his name is Robert Balacoune.

Great to see him back for Ulster, definitely can push on and play for Ireland. Class act imo.

stephen_n

awec wrote: »

We have one, his name is Robert Balacoune.

He’s injured no? So therefore not in the conversation. He would have been very much in contention if fit though.

ClanofLams

Seems reasonably likely one of the three tens got injured given Jack Carty spent 80 mins on the bench in a poor Connacht performance away to Treviso.

ElisaAtWar

ClanofLams wrote: »

Seems reasonably likely one of the three tens got injured given Jack Carty spent 80 mins on the bench in a poor Connacht performance away to Treviso.

Wow, that is as sarcastic as it comes

sydthebeat

ElisaAtWar wrote: »

Wow, that is as sarcastic as it comes

???

Really?

Dubinusa

I reckon 2morrow will be a confidence builder. Obviously, Lowe starting is probably geared to get him some confidence. The entire unit, backline could use a nice afternoon of good attacking play. I just wish they would have started Burns. He also could use a less strenuous match to get settled.
I expect a big win, lads. I reckon the floodgates will open and we score at least 5 tries.

ClanofLams

ElisaAtWar wrote: »

Wow, that is as sarcastic as it comes

😂😂😂

I am in no way being sarcastic. Can’t think of any other logical reason for it. I assume there was a 24th and 25th man there so if it was an injury to Carty he wouldn’t have been on the bench.

Could be wrong, purely guess.

Ardillaun

I would have preferred Wootton on the bench rather than Earls. Let’s have a look at our options.

PTH2009

Let's hope we pick up no injuries tomorrow, Italy can cause problems in that department

Dual wheels

Lads it doesn’t matter about burns or any of that any more Joey just came on for Munster let’s hope he finally lives up to his potential and becomes Ireland’s full time 10 with Byrne as back up

theVersatile

Ardillaun wrote: »

I would have preferred Wootton on the bench rather than Earls. Let’s have a look at our options.

Just what we need - another winger who can't defend.

awec

stephen_n wrote: »

He’s injured no? So therefore not in the conversation. He would have been very much in contention if fit though.

Played tonight.

stephen_n

awec wrote: »

Played tonight.

Pity it’s so late in the tournament, if he’d been back a month ago I’d say he would be capped by the end of the tournament. Probably this weekend.

ElisaAtWar

Ardillaun wrote: »

I would have preferred Wootton on the bench rather than Earls. Let’s have a look at our options.

Great going forward. Defensively terrible. No clue other than kick the ball away. Grand against Tier zero teams. Otherwise a huge liability. And it's so clear and obvious to see

Natterjack from Kerry

PTH2009 wrote: »

Let's hope we pick up no injuries tomorrow, Italy can cause problems in that department

Remember the days when a first team could turn out game after game for a 5N/6N, with maybe one player missing injured for a game ?

What percentage of international games these days have all 23 get through available for the next match ? Its more a question of the body count after a game - 'picking up no injuries' is almost a phrase from a bygone era.

Former Former Former

awec wrote: »

We have one, his name is Dave Kearney.

Fair point, but he's shoving on a bit to be an option for 2023.

irishbucsfan

Natterjack from Kerry wrote: »

Remember the days when a first team could turn out game after game for a 5N/6N, with maybe one player missing injured for a game ?

What percentage of international games these days have all 23 get through available for the next match ? Its more a question of the body count after a game - 'picking up no injuries' is almost a phrase from a bygone era.

Who from the France game is unavailable this week due to injury?

aloooof

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Who from the France game is unavailable this week due to injury?

To be fair, albeit it not from the France game, but we’re missing Doris, Murray and Stockdale, who would all likely / potentially make the starting 15.

Sexton and James Ryan are back from knocks. Furlong and Kilcoyne are getting their first starts after long term injuries. Henderson and Ringrose are only recently back from injuries. Henshaw is back a bit longer but he’s had his injury troubles too. Not to mention the likes of Leavy and Carbery.

I don’t think it’s as stark, game to game, as the OP made out but it certainly seems more attritional than it used to be. I vaguely remember an interview with Leo Cullen where he suggested you could expect to me without ~30% of your players thru injury at any one time.

UAEguy2020

aloooof wrote: »

There's little point discussing it with said poster, tbh. He asked why haven't they ever been dominant, and cited the last decade. I pointed out in the previous 11 years England and France won 8 of the titles on offer. This was dismissed as "it's not 2011".

Imo, the reality is that France seem to be going in the right direction, much improved on their massive under-performance of the last decade. That's good for rugby, and good for the 6 Nations, but I'm not so sure it's good for Ireland.

Add in that Ireland and Wales have parted ways with probably both their best ever respective coaches. It remains to be seen, and a couple of years is a short time in rugby, but it's possible we could be heading back towards the England / France dominance we saw in the 00's.

I’ll spell it out in simple English

There. Is. NO. Dominance. It’s. All. Bull****.

aloooof

UAEguy2020 wrote: »

I’ll spell it out in simple English

There. Is. NO. Dominance. It’s. All. Bull****.

Apart from that 11 year period when there was.

Look, trying to move the conversation along, how do you think France are faring from where they've been? How do you think Farrell and Pivac will do in comparison to their predecessors?

topdecko

aloooof wrote: »

To be fair, albeit it not from the France game, but we’re missing Doris, Murray and Stockdale, who would all likely / potentially make the starting 15.

Sexton and James Ryan are back from knocks. Furlong and Kilcoyne are getting their first starts after long term injuries. Henderson and Ringrose are only recently back from injuries. Henshaw is back a bit longer but he’s had his injury troubles too. Not to mention the likes of Leavy and Carbery.

I don’t think it’s as stark, game to game, as the OP made out but it certainly seems more attritional than it used to be. I vaguely remember an interview with Leo Cullen where he suggested you could expect to me without ~30% of your players thru injury at any one time.

Definitely massive issue in modern game. Attributable to number of subs and the upright tackling position favoured by Leinster and Irish teams in general. trying to stop these juggernauts nearly impossible.
Ireland seems to have a disproportionate number of HIA in comparison to other teams and some strange decisions made by medics in assessing them.
The recent clash of heads between Henderson and Healy was pretty severe and both men went off for HIA and then unbelievably came back on pitch considering they were nearly knocked out - Healy was all over the place and permanently subbed soon after , Hendo struggled on for a while.
Rugby has a problem and after recent story re: Steve Thompson and dementia there is no way a child of mine is playing rugby. Something has to change - brute force and attrition replacing skill, poise and timing.

OldRio

Natterjack from Kerry wrote: »

Remember the days when a first team could turn out game after game for a 5N/6N, with maybe one player missing injured for a game ?

What percentage of international games these days have all 23 get through available for the next match ? Its more a question of the body count after a game - 'picking up no injuries' is almost a phrase from a bygone era.

Fair point indeed. Something needs to change but the question is what and how?

salmocab

OldRio wrote: »

Fair point indeed. Something needs to change but the question is what and how?

Whilst it is a fair point players also are kept out more than would have happened years ago. I remember playing junior rugby a long time ago with no subs allowed we rarely finished without the full 15. Players would limp through games, playing with niggles was I’d think quite acceptable years ago and much tighter controlled now. HIA is also a lot more likely to keep out someone that years ago would definitely have trotted out the following Saturday.

Sanjuro

awec wrote: »

We have one, his name is Robert Balacoune.

Apologies for not being more up to date with Ulster, but how far would you reckon he is from a call-up?

Squidgy Black

Sanjuro wrote: »

Apologies for not being more up to date with Ulster, but how far would you reckon he is from a call-up?

Was one of the development players brought into the squad last 6N, and probably would've been in the running for a call up if he hadn't gotten injured in August.

OldRio

Ireland to put 50 points on Italy. The Leinster players in the team ignore Catts attack 'plan' and play their normal style. Following the match Mike Catt takes credit for 'his' master 'plan'.

Chancer, if you think differently have a read or listen to Stuart Barnes.

UAEguy2020

aloooof wrote: »

Apart from that 11 year period when there was.

Look, trying to move the conversation along, how do you think France are faring from where they've been? How do you think Farrell and Pivac will do in comparison to their predecessors?

Beating someone by afew points isn’t dominance. Continuing with this false argument that they are dominant just takes the fun out of them winning and makes people want to see them lose.


They are far better than they have been in the past, I do think a lot of issues they have had are still there though but they are now more organized thanks to having a competent coaching staff and those two factors lead to a happy French camp which means you get much more out of the individuals.

The one big factor in me not totally buying the French hype is France are probably the only side in the world that has been consistently good since the RWC, everyone else has been average or inconsistent since then. The question is while France have been good if and when the rest of the nations find some form and consistency will France still look as strong? Because despite how poor we have been and England, Wales they haven’t really blown any of them away and have just edged out tight contests for the most part.

the baby bull elephant

OldRio wrote: »

Ireland to put 50 points on Italy. The Leinster players in the team ignore Catts attack 'plan' and play their normal style. Following the match Mike Catt takes credit for 'his' master 'plan'.

Chancer, if you think differently have a read or listen to Stuart Barnes.

Why do people keep putting plan in quotation marks? You might rightly point out it hasn't been effective so far, due to poor design or poor implementation but it is a pretty clear plan which has some broad stroke similarities to Leinster's and many other teams.

When playing off an edge we want two lines of attack of 9 and 10 and our ideal is to suck in defenders with them getting our 13 or 15 on the outside shoulder of the defender in the 13 channel. Theoretically this should give the player with ball a range of options which can lead to a linebreak or halfbreak. At the very least stretching the defence.

Clearly it's not working anywhere close to as much as we would like at the moment but there definitely is a plan and at least the broader concept is not without merit.

bilston

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Was one of the development players brought into the squad last 6N, and probably would've been in the running for a call up if he hadn't gotten injured in August.

He looked pretty sharp last night...was one of the plus points in a pretty average Ulster team performance. He looks like he has put a bit on timber on as well, he looks very strong in contact.

If he stays fit he could be in the running for any summer tour and at worst I'd hope will get a chance by the Autumn tests.